Bracket for outdoor advertising display panel trimming



April 16, 1957 E. E. KINNEY 2,789,042

BRACKET FOR OUTDOOR ADVERTISING DISPLAY PANEL TRIMMING Filed March 16, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 imp" April 16, 1957 E. E. KINNEY 2,789,042 BRACKET FOR OUTDOOR ADVERTISING DISPLAY PANEL TRIMMING Filed March 16, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent BRACKET FOR OUTDOOR ADVERTISING DISPLAY PANEL TRIMlViING Edwin E. Kinney, Homewood, 111. Application March 16, 1953, Serial No. 342,595

8 Claims. (Cl. 248-300) It is common practice to provide large outdoor advertising display panels with ornamental trim in the form of a border frame, so that the advertising displays simulate framed pictures.

The present invention relates to the mounting of such trim, and it has for its objects to provide simple and novel trim attaching means that makes accurate installation of trim on a variety of panels easy, insures permanency of the structure, once installed, and permits the trim to be detached as a complete, replaceable unit.

in carrying out my invention I employ special bracket devices that are interposed between the panel structure as a whole and the trim; and, therefore, the present invention may be said to have for an object the production of a simple and novel bracket structure for this purpose.

Still more specifically considered, an object of the present invention is the creation of a bracket provided with a unique arrangement of jaws or clips into which flanges on a trim or other object may easily be inserted and be secured permanently or otherwise.

The various features of novelty whereby the present invention is characterized will hereinafter be pointed out with particularity in the claims; but, for a full understanding of the invention and of its objects and advantages, reference may be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a front elevational View of a panel structure embodying the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic view illustrating the distribution of the trim-supporting brackets along the periphery of the panel proper;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view showing three members separated from each other, that constitute a double bracket, while two of such members are adapted to cooperate to form a complete, single bracket;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view on line 4-4 of Fig. 1, on a much larger scale and with only so much of the trim as lies in the plane of the section shown separated from the supporting bracket;

Fig. 5 is a view looking down from a point above the bracket in Fig. 4, only the bracket being shown;

Fig. 6 is a section through the bracket on line 6-6 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 7 is a view similar to Fig. 4, on a still larger scale, showing only the bracket and the trim, assembled and fastened to each other;

I Fig. 8 is a side view of one of the brackets, illustrating a slight modification;

Fig. 9 is a perspective view of a modified, one-piece bracket; and

Fig. 10 is a perspective view of a corner of the border frame or trim, with parts broken away to expose flangegripping clips which secure meeting ends of two frame members together.

In the drawings I have illustrated only so much of one of the simpler conventional outdoor advertising panels, comprising a panel proper and supporting posts, as is required to demonstrate the manner of using the present invention. It is to be understood, however, that the invention may be used on any other conventional or suitable panel.

The conventional panel structure shown comprises a rectangular panel proper, or body, 1 and three uprights 2 to which member 1 is afiixed, the uprights extending a little above the top of the body member. Also, as is sometimes the case with long panels composed of relatively narrow horizontal sheet metal sections, the structure shown is one wherein the panel proper is in two sections meeting at the central upright or post.

The panel proper 1 is provided with a border frame or trim 3 which may be of a conventional type, except as will be explained hereinafter; the trim being made of metal, fiber glass or other suitable material and comprising any desired number of pieces.

In accordance with the present invention the trim is not fastened directly to the panel structure but to bracket devices; which devices, in turn, are fastened to the panel.

The preferred bracket is formed of sheet metal and is divided so as to be adjustable and be separable without disturbing the connections between the same and the trim and the panel, respectively.

A basic bracket may therefore comprise a main or body member and a second member or foot piece, the one to be attached to the trim and the other to the panel. In the arrangement shown, the main bracket member 4 consists of a Web 5, not quite as long as the width of the stock of which the trim is made and provided at its straight front edge with a flange 6 projecting laterally at right angles thereto.

Flange 6 should have a substantial width, an inch and a half or more, to provide a fiat surface of considerable area against which the trim may seat itself.

Web 5 is tapered, increasing in width from one end toward the other. This widening continues only throughout about two thirds of the length of the web, and then a more rapid diminution in width occurs until the second end is reached. Thus a long sloping shoulder 7 is formed at one end of the web, behind the corresponding end of the flange.

Flange 6 is extended beyond both ends of the web 5 to create two tongues which are bent back and then forward to create horizontally-lying U-shaped spring jaws or clips 8 and 9, respectively; the open ends of the latter being at the front and the clips proper being spaced a short distance from the corresponding ends of the web. Holes 11 are punched or drilled through the legs of each clip for the reception of rivets or other fastening elements.

The foot piece for the bracket device is a member 11 composed of two wings 12 and 13 standing at right angles to each other. Wing 12 is tapered to correspond with the longer tapered portion of web 5. Bolts 15, passing through wing 12 and web 5, secure these two pieces together. This connection between the two bracket sections is preferably such that the distance between flange 6 and wing 13 of the foot piece may be varied. This may be accomplished by providing only one bolt hole 16 for each bolt in wing 12 and two properly spaced bolt holes 17 for the same bolt in web 5. Instead of the double bolt holes 17 an elongated hole or slot 18, as shown in Fig. 8, may be provided. Wing 13 contains bolt holes, which may be transverse slots 19, for the reception of bolts 14 to secure the device's-to a panel proper or to the uprights or cross beams in structurescontaining cross beams.

It is preferable that the bracket devices just described be of two kinds, right hand and left hand.

In some situations one-piece brackets, similar to the two-piece bracket in general contour, can be used with provided with rearwardly projecting flanges 26 and 21,

respectively, at the outer and inner edges of the frame. When a trim member is set against the front face of a bracket device, the said flanges enter the respective clips or jaws 8 and 9 on that device. Rivets 22, or other suitable fastenings, extend through the holes it) in each clip and through the flange of the trim seated in that clip, as shown in- Fig. 7. The number of bracket devices employed is largely a matter of choice. Fig. 2 illustrates a typical arrangement, there being three brackets at each end of the panel and brackets mounted on the uprights above and below the panel proper.

In order to produce a symmetrical arrangement of brackets on a panel it is preferable to have right hand and left hand brackets. Thus the bracket shown in Fig. 7 bass. body portion or member like that at the right in Fig. 3; and, in order that the webs 5 of this bracket and the corresponding top bracket lie in the same plane, the body member of such top bracket should be like that at the left in Fig. 3, turned end over end to give the desired slope to the top trim piece. A similar relation between the brackets at the two ends of the panel is also desirable.

There are many ways in which complete assembling may be done. For example, the foot pieces ii for the required number of brackets may be attached to a panel, while the body members 4 of the brackets are attached to the back of a completed border frame or to sections adapted to form such a frame. Each member 4 may then be secured to the corresponding foot piece; the slots in the wings 13 of the foot pieces permitting limited lateral adjustment of the latter on the panel to efiect accurate registration of the body portions of the bracket devices with the foot pieces.

In the particular panel construction illustrated, the panel proper is of a type that calls for an adjustment of the bracket deviceswhich leaves the minimum distance between wing 13 of the foot piece and fiange6 on bracket member 4. When the bracket is mounted on an upright, the sloping shoulder 7, as shown in Fig. 4, may make line contact with the panel proper which therefore serves as a gauge for setting the brackets on the uprights. Other types of panels require that the front edge faces of the brackets stand farther away from the front faces of the uprights on which the brackets are mounted. In such a case, the range of adjustment between the foot piece and the body member of the racket permits this greater distance to be attained; the panel proper still serving, how ever, as a gauge which contacts the sloping shoulders 7.

When a long panel proper is made in halves that meet at the vertical center line of the's'tructure, the two halves may be fastened together and to the central upright by the same bracket devices. For example, the border frame being also in halves, a right hand bracket member '4 and a similar, left hand member may be attached to the meeting ends of the frame members, both at the top and the bottom of the panel, and a single foot piece may have its Wing 12 inserted between the web portions 5 of mem bers 1-1; the wing 12 and thewebs being bolted together while the Wing 13 is bolted or otherwise secured to the center upright. Fig. 3 illustrates this particular arrangement of bracket elements, separated from each other, t0 form the desired double bracket.

The vertical members of the border frame may meet the horizontal members in miter joints as shown Fig. 10. In this case the flanges 24} at the periphery of the border frame may be fastened together at the corners of embraces a small section of each of the two meeting flanges; the clips being riveted or otherwise fastened to the flanges. More or less similar clips 24 in like manner secure together the meeting ends of flanges 21. Each of these clips comprises a pair of U-shaped clips similar to those on the brackets connected together to stand at right angles to each other; rivet holes 25, similar to those in the clips on the brackets being provided in these clips.

It will thus be seen that I have created very simple means for and method of attaching a border trim to a large panel, requiring only small bolts and rivets and, where wood uprights are encountered, wood screws, and brackets ready to receive the bolts or screws to fasten them to the panel structure and to receive rivets to fasten the brackets and the trim together. After holes are drilled in the trim a small hand tool sutfices to rivet it to the brackets. Installation is greatly facilitated by reason of the double slope of the rear edges of the web members of the brackets; one slope determining the inclination of the border frame or trim members with respect to the face of the panel, whereas the other slope serves properly to position the said members around the display advertising. After installation the trim is solidly backed and firmly held, notwithstanding the use of relatively small bolts and rivets.

In the most highly developed form of the invention the brackets are not only readily adjustable to what may be termed variable thickness in panels, but they are separable so that an entire trim may be left intact upon detachment from its panel and be ready to be put back again quickly and easily, whenever desired.

Also, where a trim is encountered that cannot otherwise be held, marginal portions may be fitted over the ends of the brackets and the clips on the ends of the latter, so as to be interlocked with the brackets behind the clips.

Furthermore, in case some of the border frame or trim members are in sections aligned end to end, the same brackets may be used to secure such sections to each other and to the panel. So, also, in the case of a panel formed ofia plurality of 'secti0n'$,.Pla ced end to end, the brackets will serve to fasten .such sections together and to uprights while serving their main purpose of trim mounting.

I claim:

I. A sheet metal bracket device for securing a framelike. border trim on an outdoor advertising display panel, which comprises "an elongated web having a long straight front edge, a flange "extending laterally from said edge at right angles to the web, the metal of the flange, extended being formedintohorizontal, U-shaped clips lying behind the'plane 'of the flange and opening forwardly, the web increasing gradually in width from each end to a point somewhat neare'rone "end than the other, and a 2 second flange a't'the other long edge'o'f the web.

2. A bracket device as set forth in claim 1, wherein the clips proper are spaced a short distance from the corresponding ends of the web.

3. A bracket device to secure together .and support the meeting ends of two aligned sections of a border trim on an outdoor advertising display panel, which comprises two main members and a foot member, each main member being in the formof 'a web having a long flange of considerable Width to engage the back of the trim, the foot member being in the form of two wings at right angles to each other, one of said wings'bein'g between and engaged with said webs, detachable fastenings extending through the websand the interposed wing, and forwardly opening U-shaped clips on the ends of said flanges to receive and 'holdflanges on the trim :sections.

4. A bracket device to-se'cure a border'trim to an outdoor advertising display panel, which-comprises a main member and a foot member, the main member being in the form of a long, narrowweb element having at the long from edgeaflange of considerable widthto engage the back of the trim, the foot member being in the form of two wing elements at right angles to each other and one of which lies flat against said web element in the space between said flange and the second wing, forwardly opening U-shaped clips on the ends of said flange, one of the two elements that lie flat against each other containing a slot, and a bolt passing through such elements at such slot to secure the main member and the foot member together in various relative positions.

5. A bracket as set forth in claim 4 wherein the rear long edge of the web slopes rearwardly from the bottom to a point somewhat above the middle and then slo es forwardly to the upper end of the web; and wherein the upper part of the foot member is a substantial distance below the top of the bracket and leaves the space behind the upper part of the web clear.

6. A bracket for securing to an outdoor display panel, comprising a frame structure and a body member in front of and secured to the frame structure, a trim in the form of a border frame for the body member of the panel: comprising an elongated web having at one long edge a flange for attachment to the trim and at its second long edge means to attach the bracket to the frame structure beyond the edges of the body member of the panel, and one end edge of said web sloping toward the opposite end from a point near said flange to provide an inclined shoulder for engaging the edges of panel body members of various thicknesses and overlapping the faces of the latter.

7. A bracket as set forth in claim 6, wherein the means for attaching the bracket to the frame structure comprises: a second flange element, a wing on that element lying flat against the web, and means to attach the wing and web together to vary the distance between the two flanges.

8. A sheet metal bracket for securing a frame-like border trim on an outdoor advertising display panel comprising a body member and supporting means therefor, which consists of an elongated web and two flanges extending in opposite directions from the long edges of and at right angles to the web, one flange being adapted to be attached to such supporting means, and the other flange being extended beyond the ends of the web as tongues formed into U-shaped clips facing away from the flange adapted to be attached to the supporting means; such clips being adapted to receive flanges on the inner and outer edges of the border trim when such trim and bracket are assembled.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNiTED STATES PATENTS 1,488,090 Buhr Mar. 25, 1924 1,853,143 Overholtz Apr. 12, 1932 1,886,899 Overholtz Nov. 8, 1932 2,055,285 Ford Sept. 22, 1936 2,116,844 Overholtz May 10, 1938 2,132,400 Curren Oct. 11, 1938 2,315,739 Sale Apr. 6, 1943 2,487,287 Weber et a1 Nov. 8, 1949 2,551,432 Goodman May 1, 1951 2,640,533 Junkunc June 2, 1953 

1. A METHOD OF POROLYZING A SOLID CARBON-CONTAINING FUEL WHEREIN A SOLID CARBON-CONTAINING PYROLYSIS RESIDUE REMAINS AFTER SAID PYROLYSIS, WHICH COMPRISES: GASIFYING A PORTION OF SAID PYROLYSIS RESIDUE WITH A GASEOUS REACTANT TO FORM A SOLID GENERATOR RESIDUE HAVING A TEMPERATURE SUBSTANTIALLY HIGHER THAN THAT OF THE PYROLYSIS RESIDUE; MIXING A SECOND PORTION OF SAID PYROLYSIS RESIDUE WITH SAID GENERATOR RESIDUE TO FORM A SOLID MIXTURE HAVING 